Coolant or refrigerant equipped therapeutic devices are known in the art, for example, in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,204,543, to Henderson, 4,381,025 to Schooley, and 4,592,358 to Westplate. The prior known coolant equipped therapeutic devices, however, either provide absorbent material between the coolant and the skin of the wearer or expose the skin of the wearer directly to the planar surfaces of the coolant containing pockets. The absorbent material soaks up and quickly dissipates moisture from the skin of the wearer. It acts as a heat transfer barrier that will also dissipate the cooling capacity of the coolant or refrigerant material. On the other hand, the direct contacting of the smooth planar impervious plastics or the like packaging material for the refrigerant gel against the skin of the wearer causes an acute thermo shock which could freeze the material to the skin creating not only discomfort but also skin damage.
It will therefore be an improvement in this art to provide therapeutic cooling apparel containing refrigerant material in a flexible impervious tube adapted to be wrapped around the part of the body to be cooled and having a foam surface directly engaging the skin of the wearer and providing a blister-like lattice texture condensing and trapping moisture for subsequent evaporation to prolong the cooling effect of the refrigerant material.
It would be a specific improvement in this art to provide tubular headbands, wristbands, and anklebands composed of flexible polyolefin film housing pockets of refrigerant gel and having an outer surface composed of polyolefin foam spot welded on the film and providing a lattice texture face for directly engaging the skin of the wearer to prevent initial thermo shock and to condense and trap moisture.